Legit Reviews

Well, I'm considering just forgoing building my next pc and just buying a pre-made box or utilize one of the many online companies to build me my next box. Do any of you have any recommendations as far as online retailers/companies? Also, to save some money I'm considering an AMD rig. Are they worth my time and money? I want something that will last me a few years and will allow my kids and I to play some games (COD/BF2/Spore/Quake), edit photo's and video's. Consider my budget relatively tight, so I'm looking for best bang for the buck.

Thanks,

Razorbacx

I haven't ever actually owned a pre-built computer besides a laptop. I doubt that I would ever go with a big company like hp/dell. LR just did an interview with Chris Morley from Maingear and they seem decent. AMD's are not bad rigs at all. I have a 940be on a gigabyte board and it is a hell of a machine. Perhaps not as fast as my I7 but it holds it own just fine. I spent a whole lot less on my amd rig too

i would never get a dell desktop or laptop, you have to pay WAY too much for them and they are modest at best, maingear seems like they are focused on customer service more than anything else, so i'd look into one of their systems, and for the most part, if you are willing to build one, thats the cheapest route, though you just miss out on the whole warranty assurance thing

skier wrote: though you just miss out on the whole warranty assurance thing

Yes and no. Most parts are covered individually under warranty and shipping on 1 component is a whole lot cheaper than on a whole rig

I've had pretty good success with Cyberpowerinc.com as well. They have decent prices, although the newer graphics card back-orders make it somewhat of a pain to order right now. I spent $1889 on my new rig from them, including shipping. They have some issues with customer service sometime, but they offer a 3 year limted warranty and lifetime tech support. I sugguest if you're going to get an AMD build, go with the Gamer 8800 configurator. It offers Windows 7 free so that'll save you a good $130. This is the rig I ordered, albeit the price has gone up since I bought it.

*BASE_PRICE: [+785]
BUNDLE: None
BLUETOOTH: None
CD: LG 22X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Dual Layer Drive (BLACK COLOR)
CD2: None
CAS: SilverStone/Raven RV01B-W Black Color Full Tower Case w/ Side See-Thru Window [+103]
CASUPGRADE: None
CS_FAN: Default case fans
CPU: AMD Phenom™II X4 965 Black Edition Quad-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology [+54]
CARE1: CoolerMaster Thermal Fusion 400 Extreme Performance CPU - Thermal Compound Optimized for Thermal Dissipation [+10]
FLOPPY: None
FREEBIE_OS: None
FAN: Ultra ChillTec Thermo Electric CPU Cooler (Venom Boost Extreme OC Certified) [+120]
FREEBIE_RM: None
FREEGAME_VC02: None
FA_HDD: None
FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)
HDD: Extreme Performance (RAID-0) with 2 Identical Hard Drives [+11] (1TB (500GBx2) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+20])
HDD2: Single Hard Drive [+47] (1TB (1TBx1) SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+36])
IEEE_CARD: None
KEYBOARD: None [-4]
MOUSE: Razer Naga MMOG 5600 DPI Gaming Mouse [+64]
MODEM: None
MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
MONITOR: None
MONITOR2: None
MOTHERBOARD: GigaByte MA790FXT-UD5P AM3 DDR3 790FX CrossFire Chipset with Quad PCIE slot SATA RAID MB w/GbLAN [+90]
MEMORY: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel Memory Module [+169] (Corsair Dominator [+108])
NETWORK: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network
OS: Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
OS_UPGRADE: None
PRINTER: None
PRINTER_CABLE: None
POWERSUPPLY: Corsair Power Supplies [+64] (750 Watts CMPSU-750TX - Quad SLI Ready [+8])
RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
SPEAKERS: None [-5]
TEMP: None
TVRC: None
USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
USBHD: None
VIDEOCAMERA: None
VIDEO: ATI Radeon HD 5870 PCI-E 16X 1GB DDR5 Video Card [DirectX 11 Support] [+385] (Major Brand Powered by ATI)
VIDEO2: None
VC_PHYSX: None
WNC: PCI Wireless 802.11g 54Mbps Network Interface Card
_PRICE: (+2065)

I researched every part before I placed the order. Also, if you put in the promo code REPEAT you get a 5% discount Take a look there and see whatca think!

I wouldnt say $1889 is a price someone an a "tight" budget would be willing to pay.. I just built a decent system for a friend for around $550 - I had an extra windows 7 so he saved on that. he wanted to game so he got a 5750. not the best but it will do.

If you can build your own I would suggest that route.

If you're going to go the boutique builder route I know that Ibuypower has *decent* quality to their component list but to be completely honest you're not going to get much benefit from a e-tailer over building it yourself.

Especially considering that you have a tight budget, you should compare similar builds on newegg to a few e-tailer builds and see if you're really getting a budget build without sacrificing too much.

Very true, mine was not a "budget" build. But there is plenty of stuff on there that he most definitely doesn't need for a budget rig. I priced out all the pieces there individually and I couldn't get a better deal on them piece for piece than I could through the website, so I decided to go that route instead of building it myself like I did my last one.

Cyberpowerinc.com is a viable alternative to building it yourself, but check NewEgg for prices on all the hardware that you want on NewEgg and TigerDirect. Some of them you can get for less money on those two sites. Can always just use CP as a configurator to figure out what you want in your machine and go from there

I've decided to just build my own PC. The following is a listing of parts that I already have in my possession and will use:

Cooler Master Wave Master Case
Q6600 processor
EVGA 9800GTX+ (512MB)
WD 500GB HD
4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 PC6400 RAM

The following listing are the parts that I am going to buy:

Corsair TX650 PSU
XFX nForce 750i SLI Extreme Motherboard
WD 500GB HD
MSI SATA Lightscribe DVD/RW Optical Drive
Win 7 Home Premium

So, how do I look? I'm doing this all for right under $400.00.

Razorbacx

What is in your rig now? Or are these the parts that you already bought? The way I see it, if you already have a q6600 than why are you buying another motherboard? If you already have these parts, it seems to me like you are stuck in stuff that was made two to three years ago. Why not build yourself a rig with the core I-7 860?

The 750i chipset is not very quad-core friendly if you're planning on overclocking, just thought it worth a mention

stopthekilling77 wrote:The 750i chipset is not very quad-core friendly if you're planning on overclocking, just thought it worth a mention

I have to agree...try to stick with a board with Intel chipsets...like a Gigabyte or Asus P45 maybe.